These words are part of a rousing epitaph to Barwell accountant Susan Taylor, who died three years ago swimming the Channel to raise money for Loughborough-based Rainbows Hospice for children and young people and Diabetes UK.

They appear in a memorial inscription on a bench overlooking the sea at Varne Ridge Channel Swim Park between Folkestone and Dover where the 34-year-old stayed before setting off on what became a fatal fundraising endeavour.

Experienced endurance swimmer Susan suffered acute cardio-respitory collapse in the water just a mile from the French shore on July 14 2013 and was pronounced dead at a hospital in Boulogne.

Varne Ridge proprietors David and Evelyn Frantzeskou this week spoke of their sadness at the tragedy in a compelling BBC4 documentary Swim the Channel, broadcast on Monday.

Talking to The Hinckley Times afterwards, Mr Frantzeskou said: “We were all expecting great stuff.

“Susan was such a nice person. She was a capable swimmer.

“She was doing something she loved.

“It just shouldn’t have happened. You just can’t believe it.”

The Frantzeskous accommodate dozens of would-be Channel swimmers every year and put up plaques around the holiday park to commemorate each successful crossing.

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But he added: “It is one of those things you can never fully prepare yourself for.

“You have to push yourself past your limit.”

Unexpected obstacles included stinging jellyfish - “Susan had a few words to say about them” - and pushing through a zone of waterborne detritus at what is known as the Separation Point, midway between England and France.

“It’s a couple of hundred metres of seaweed and rubbish and jellyfish,” said David.

“It’s disgusting.”

Susan’s endeavour struck a chord with fellow Channel swimmer and comedian David Walliams, who was among the first to encourage people to support her chosen causes after her death and who became a Rainbows patron as a result.